Union plans strike vote over crackdown on University of California Gaza protests

The largest union of academic workers, which represents more than 48,000 graduate student workers throughout the University of California system, will hold a strike authorization vote as early as next week in response to how universities have cracked down on students’ Gaza protests.

“The use and sanction of violent force to curtail peaceful protest is an attack on free speech and the right to demand change, and the university must sit down with students, unions, and campus organizations to negotiate, rather than escalate,” read an announcement of the strike vote from UAW local 4811.

Earlier this year, the union voted by a margin of more than nine to one in favor of supporting a ceasefire, according to the announcement.

Related: More than 2,000 pro-Palestinian protesters arrested across US campuses

Graduate workers last went on strike in November 2022 over a new union contract; it was the largest strike in US higher education history. They recently merged two UAW locals, 2865 and 5810, under the single UAW local 4811.

“We have been calling on the University of California to de-escalate and negotiate with the protesters over their very urgent and moral concerns and it failed to do that and it failed to protect students and workers and allowed this violence to occur,” Rafael Jaime, co-president of UAW 4811 and a graduate worker at UCLA, said.

“We’re holding a strike authorization vote to hold the university accountable and demand the university respect the members’ right to protected speech and right to protest.”

He said the union also plans to file unfair labor practice charges against the University of California over the university’s use of the Los Angeles police department (LAPD) against protesters, and for changing policies unilaterally in response to the protests without bargaining.

“This is the defining issue of our generation, and it’s really important for all, not just workers at the University of California, but across the entire nation, to speak up and to ensure every worker has the right to speak on this issue,” added Jaime.

“We believe all workers, all students, have a fundamental right to engage in protests and engage in free speech, and universities need to respect that right.”

The United Auto Workers union, with 400,000 active members and over 500,000 retirees, is the largest US union to call for a ceasefire in Gaza, which they did in December.

UAW president Shawn Fain recently reaffirmed the union’s position. “Our union has been calling for a ceasefire for six months. This war is wrong and this response against students and academic workers, many of them UAW members, is wrong,” Fain said in a statement on Wednesday.

Graduate student workers are also calling on the National Labor Relations Board to weigh in on how universities have responded to pro-Palestinian protests, and whether those responses violate US labor laws and collective bargaining agreements.

The Graduate Labor Organization at Brown University has filed several unfair labor practice charges against the university in regards to pro-Palestinian protests and the university’s responses to them.

Forty-one students at Brown were arrested, and charges remain, despite the pro-Palestinian encampment dispersing as part of negotiations that include a planned vote by the university’s highest governing body for October on divesting from companies affiliated with Israel. The charges filed by the union allege that Brown unilaterally changed protest policies without bargaining, and made threats of retaliation toward union members for participating in pro-Palestine campus protests.

“It’s really about the university trying to leverage this fact that, as graduate workers, we do have student status, and kind of using that as a workaround for violating labor law. This has been their playbook on a whole host of issues,” said Michael Ziegler, political director of the Graduate Labor Organization and graduate worker at Brown.

“In the past five years, we’ve had something like 20 protests on the main green, and there was never any issue – the university didn’t take these actions. This is new, and I think a dangerous attempt by them to clamp down on the rights of speech and protected concerted action.”

UAW local 872, which represents around 3,000 graduate workers at the University of Southern California, has recently filed an unfair labor practice charge against the university over arrests of at least five union members. The union has called for charges to be dropped against all 93 protesters who were arrested on 24 April, and for the university to accede to demands from USC Divest from Death Coalition.

“USC’s summoning of LAPD riot police to arrest their own students and workers for peacefully demonstrating is abhorrent and wrong,” said Maile McCann, a local 872 member and PhD candidate in the civil eEngineering department at USC.

“The administration’s actions show an alarming disregard for our right as students and union members to engage in peaceful demonstrations, and their decisions have put international students in particular at serious risk. USC’s unnecessary escalation has resulted in a shameful waste of public resources for the purposes of silencing dissent.”

A spokesperson for USC said in an email: “We believe the charge is without merit, and [we] intend to defend our position before the National Labor Relations Board.”

Brown University and the University of California system did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

A spokesperson for Brown University has previously said in response to the first unfair labor practice charge, “individuals are not absolved from abiding by Brown policies by virtue of union membership.”

“The University of California is deeply alarmed, concerned and disappointed that our UAW-represented academic employees would choose this moment of crisis to take a vote to engage in an unlawful work stoppage. UC values these employees and asks them to join it in supporting our communities at this time,” a spokesperson for the University of California system said in an email. “There is no basis under the contract or the law for UAW to engage in a work stoppage. Further, given the vulnerable status of our communities at this moment, a strike vote by UAW is essentially a vote to take advantage of and exploit this complex and impactful situation.”